Please see first chapter for disclaimer, rating, warnings, pairings, etc.
Special Thanks: goes out to mangetsu no hime, Danish78, Sachiko Heiwajima, xHinaLovex, Break Blade, Tamani, Melanieciel, Sahel, Neverfearthedark, and TheseFourWords for all your reviews! Also thanks to everyone who's added this story to their favorites and follows!
Author's Note: Ah, so many exciting things this chapter! But one in particular I'm thinking about... Thank you all so much for reading, and I hope you enjoy this chapter!
*~Chapter XXVI~*
~Realization~
By the time Hinata made it out to the living room from where she'd been talking to Sasuke on the phone in her bedroom, Hanabi already had a big bowl of popcorn sitting on the couch next to her. The television and DVD player were powered up, but the screen was blank; presumably, Hanabi had started the DVD, but paused it right before the opening images appeared.
"Finally," Hanabi huffed, spying her sister coming toward her. "It took you long enough, big sis. So what did your boyfriend say?"
Hinata curled up in her corner of the couch and reached for a handful of hot, buttery popcorn. "Pretty much any time works for him. How about yours?" She refused to acknowledge the blush glowing like a bright red beacon on her face.
"Saturday night. He works every night this week, but has Saturday and Sunday off." Hanabi took a sip of her fizzy greenish-yellow drink, then recapped the bottle and settled it between her legs and the arm of the couch so it would be in easy reach. "You gonna text Tenten, or should I?" She held up her phone, though she was clearly eyeing the remote for the DVD player.
"Go ahead and start the movie," Hinata told her sister. "I'll text Tenten."
"Thanks, Hinata!" Hanabi didn't protest, dropping her phone in favor of the remote. Wiggling until she was a little more comfortable, she reached for another handful of popcorn as she watched the screen as if it were the most interesting, crucial thing in the world.
Rolling her eyes, Hinata picked up her phone and shot off a quick text to Tenten. Saturday night okay?
The opening scene of the movie - a man in a vintage car driving along what looked like a back country road - played on as Hinata's phone chirped. She kept her ears tuned to the catchy song in the background as she read Tenten's responding text. That's fine. Be here around five, okay?
Sure thing. Watching a movie with Hanabi. Talk to you later. Hinata sent the text, then told Hanabi, "We're supposed to be at Neji and Tenten's place at five on Saturday night. You going to text your paramour, or you want me to do it? I'm sure it would be a lovely introduction for both of us."
As Hinata had expected, that got Hanabi's attention. "I'll do it, thank you." Hanabi snatched up her phone and typed out a quick message on the keypad, her eyes darting up to the screen every now and then. After sending her text, Hanabi set her phone pointedly out of Hinata's reach on the table at her end of the couch, grabbed another handful of popcorn, and refocused on the movie.
After taking a sip of her own red-capped drink, Hinata settled back into her seat and let herself get caught up in the movie. She quickly liked the hero, a classical pianist just on the cusp of making it big while suffering from an estrangement from his brother. It didn't take long for her to get caught up in the character's story, and his quickly-growing romance with his frequent performance partner, a cellist who struggled to hide her clairvoyant ability and was only safe from having psychic episodes while playing her music.
About half an hour into the movie, things started taking a dark turn, heralded by an ominous ticking sound weaving through the soundtrack. Hinata gasped and cringed when the first murder, obviously if not graphically, took place. Going rigid in her seat, she turned to her sister and demanded in a tight tone, "Hanabi, is this a horror movie?"
"No," Hanabi denied her accusation, sounding annoyed at the interruption. "It's a romance movie, with some thriller elements to make it exciting. Duh."
Hinata narrowed her eyes at the screen. While the romance was definitely there, sizzling between the two characters (and their respective actors) with visible chemistry, she was starting to get a bad vibe. Something really nasty was getting ready to go down, and it wasn't an impending breakup. "So help me, little sister, if you've trapped me into watching a horror movie, I swear I will put ice cubes in your bed when you least expect it."
Hanabi huffed and rolled her eyes. "I told you, Hinata, it's not a horror movie. Now just be quiet and watch, okay?" She took another handful of popcorn and returned to the movie, obviously determined to ignore her sister and any more threats.
Muttering mutinously under her breath, Hinata fished the last few kernels of popcorn out of the bottom of the bowl and munched as she warily returned to watching the movie. A web of evil seemed to be closing inexorably around the two young lovers. As the tension ratcheted upwards, underscored by the threatening repeating musical motif, she wanted to leave the room, but was too caught up in the movie to stop watching. Onscreen, Tsuruga Kuon and Mogami Setsu finished up an extended, late-night rehearsal for an upcoming performance. All appeared normal, until Setsu suddenly stiffened; as the actress's eyes distended, so did Hinata's. Snatching up a pillow from behind her, she hugged it to her chest and prepared to hide her face as the frighteningly slow, repetitive sound of a metronome sounded in the background. Curling her knees up against the pillow clutched to her midriff, she bit back a whimper as the sound got louder, making gooseflesh ripple up along her arms and the back of her neck.
"The darkness - The terror - No!" Just as Setsu screamed, the lights in the rehearsal hall went out, except for the dim emergency lighting, which only served to make the atmosphere spookier. Hinata flinched and uttered a breathless little scream of her own. "Where are the security guards?" she wondered aloud.
Kuon wrapped an arm around Setsu's shoulders, half-carrying his much shorter partner as they stumbled together through the almost-dark, trying to get away from the metronome - growing louder and louder - as well as the sinister laughter and increasingly terrible taunts shooting out of the blackness. Setsu half-screamed again and wrenched suddenly sideways, pulling Kuon with her just enough for him to miss being stabbed by a wicked-looking blade that unexpectedly blazed out of the dark. A few steps later, she sobbed and veered in a different direction as the same knife slashed off a piece of her gauzy top, just missing her skin, her clairvoyance the only defense the couple had against the repeated attacks. But how long could she keep it up? Hinata wondered desperately.
And the villian just kept coming, terrible and confident and brimming with threats.
Hinata gulped, hands strangling the pillow though she couldn't seem to tear her gaze away from the screen. Kuon and Setsu had to be nearly to the door, right? It felt like they'd been trapped in the dark forever. But if they could just get to the exit...
Hanabi started bouncing lightly on her end of the couch. She let out a whoop when a masked figure, dressed in black from head-to-toe to match the lack of light in the conservatory, charged the couple.
At the same moment, another blur of black raced in from the opposite direction, interposing itself between the trapped musicians and the threat. Hinata gasped sharply, shocked as the two grappled for possession of the knife, threats tumbling over each other in nearly-inaudible, acidic spurts.
Just as Hinata opened her mouth to shout at Kuon to do something useful, he seemed to shake himself out of his frozen shock and threw himself into the fray. With the assistance of the second man dressed in black, they overpowered the villian - who slit his own throat in a dark spray of blood, instead of allowing himself to be captured.
Slumping bonelessly against the couch, Hinata let out a shaky breath as the trio finally found their way to the exit and out into the moonlit night, where their rescuer was revealed to be Kuon's estranged brother. The attacker, who had been stalking Kuon and Setsu throughout the movie, was the unbalanced brother of their father, who had loved the boys' mother and always thought she should have been his. The elder brother, Tasuku, who had been avidly following the younger's career, had figured everything out just in time - and had barely escaped becoming their uncle's second victim only the week before.
As the credits began to roll, Hinata released her death grip on the pillow and turned to her sister. "Not a horror movie, huh?" she queried weakly.
Hanabi grinned smugly. "Told you it wasn't," she said. "Really, if you stop to analyze it, the movie's all about love. Romantic love between Kuon and Setsu, brotherly love between Kuon and Tasuku, and the twisted version of love Masashi had for Michiko."
"I noticed that," Hinata said grudgingly. "But it had plenty of scary moments, though!"
"Scary moments do not a horror movie make," Hanabi insisted. "It is a thriller, though." She indicated the screen, where the title of the movie appeared, followed by something that totally snatched Hinata's breath away.
Metronome
Based on the best-selling novel by
UCHIHA SASUKE
Sasuke sat in front of his computer, contemplating children's stories.
Though he'd been consumed lately with both real-life things and his new supernatural thriller novel, he hadn't forgotten his promise to Karura. Like a program running in the background of a computer, ideas had been floating through Sasuke's mind, though he usually rejected them for one reason or another. He'd never attempted children's fiction before, which made him wonder why in the world he'd so blithely promised his niece he'd write her one.
He was so, so tempted to cop out and write what was familiar to him. He knew of at least one book series for kids with slightly grisly undertones, but he knew if Itachi didn't kill him for it, Temari would. And besides, he wasn't sure he wanted his niece to be exposed to such things at her young age.
No, Sasuke would think of something else more suited to a child's tender sensibilities. He read some fantasy, and wondered if perhaps that was the way to go. He knew Karura liked fairy-tales, because she'd begged her uncle to read some as bedtime stories the last time she stayed. Perhaps he could take an old favorite and put a fresh new spin on it, keep the beloved elements while giving it an update, as it were.
...And no, he wasn't giving himself an impossible challenge. At all.
Rearing back in his chair, Sasuke rubbed his hands over his face and breathed out a frustrated sigh. He felt stretched to such thinness, the tenuous balance he'd found with everything threatened to snap. So many things clamored for his attention: his supernatural book and its deadline, quickly looming; the new book for Karura; the movie premiere; his are-we-or-aren't-we relationship with Hinata...
And then, of course, there was his final appearance at the library. Two hours of interacting with his fans would undoubtedly leave him harassed, with a pounding headache, and utterly exhausted. It wasn't that he didn't appreciate his fans - where would he be without them, after all? - but having to see and relate with them made him nervous at best. Especially the female ones.
Lunch with Hinata beforehand would help, of course. Though she could be wickedly funny or wildly excited at times, for the most part she was a calm, soothing presence in his life. He seemed to forget to be nervous when she was around in stressful situations, which was one of the many reasons why he wanted her at his side in New York. Sasuke wondered if he could talk Tsunade into letting Hinata be his "assistant" of sorts at the book signing, since Jiraiya wasn't coming from New York for this last appearance. He pouted about it often, but there was too much work for him to do this week to be able to get away. (Sasuke personally thought he'd abandoned too much work the past two weeks, which was what gave him such a heavy load this one, but wisely kept his mouth shut about his theory.)
Thinking about lunch with Hinata brought Sasuke's mind sharply around to the dinner with her family (sans father). The fact he would meet all of them at the same time, even if at Neji and Tenten's house instead of in a public setting like a restaurant, made his stomach clench up in knots.
He didn't like people. And yet here he was, doing so many things which brought him into such close proximity to them. Sasuke still wasn't sure what, exactly, had been the first in the chain reaction of events which led him to this point. But at least it wasn't all bad. If he'd never visited the library, he would probably never have met Hinata. And he didn't want to think about what his life might be like without her. For some reason, the old routine which had seemed so safe and familiar before felt so dry and boring to him now. The thought of going out and partying every night still held no appeal for him, but at least he didn't nearly have a mental meltdown at the thought of being around other people.
At least, not when he had Hinata at his side.
Sasuke glanced at his clock, then debated for a while. A few minutes later, his course decided, he picked up his phone and called his agent.
The phone rang four times before Jiraiya finally picked up. "Y'ello?" The burly agent tended to answer the phone that way when he was distracted by about four other things. Apparently, Sasuke had called at a bad time.
But he certainly wasn't going to hang up and call back later. "Jiraiya, I need you to do me a favor."
"What? Sasuke, if this has anything to do with New York, everything is set in stone. I cannot change it. Nobody else can change it. Not even the queen of England could change it!" Jiraiya's already loud voice raised with each declaration, until he was practically shouting.
Sasuke pulled the phone away from his ear briefly and raised his eyebrows at it. "I don't see why the Queen would have any interest in my schedule," he pointed out personably. "But I'm not calling about New York. As a matter of fact, I'm calling about something not only a little closer to home, but a little more - well, timely."
A long silence ensued as Jiraiya apparently mulled that over. "All right," he said resignedly. "I'm going to hate myself for asking this, but what do you want me to do?"
Spinning his chair so he faced the embroidered Uchiha clan crest hanging framed on the wall, he asked, "Are you still so cozy with Tsunade at the library?"
"You're backing out on tomorrow's book signing, aren't you?" Jiraiya sighed gustily. "Sasuke-"
"Why are you so quick to jump to negative conclusions tonight?" Sasuke interrupted peevishly. "I'm not backing out of Wednesday. I'll be there on time, and I'll stay the full two hours like I promised. But since you're not going to be there this week - and before you say anything else, I understand why you aren't - I'm short an assistant. I was wondering if you could sweet-talk your girlfriend into letting Hinata substitute as my assistant." She was a thousand times better than the other girl, the one with glasses - and Tsunade was a little too bossy for his taste.
Jiraiya grunted. "Who fed you nice pills all of a sudden?" Ignoring Sasuke's growl of protest, he continued. "I suppose I could call Tsunade and talk to her about it."
Like you weren't already planning on calling her anyway, Sasuke snarked silently. But he knew he'd pushed enough of Jiraiya's buttons for one night, and silently waited for whatever else his agent had to say.
"I guess I'll call her right now, unless you need anything else?" At Sasuke's denial, Jiraiya added, "All right. I'll text you when I have an answer. Might be a while, though."
Sasuke had a feeling he'd be waiting the rest of the night. Or maybe not - how was he supposed to know what love past fifty was like? Maybe all they did on the phone was sit in silence and listen to each other breathe or something. He certainly wasn't curious enough to ask. "Okay. Thanks, Jiraiya. Talk to you soon."
"Sure, kid." Jiraiya disconnected the call from his end, and Sasuke set his phone aside and turned to Ninja. "So, buddy, want to play some tug-o-war?"
Several games later - plus a few more of fetch, and a timeout for a drink for both man and dog - Sasuke's phone chirped. He picked it up and quickly opened the text, feeling a smile stretch his lips as he read Jiraiya's message.
She wasn't happy at first, but I sweet-talked her into it. Hinata all yours Wed night. No more calls unless emergency, OK?
Sasuke was only too happy to oblige.
*~To Be Continued~*
Author's Ending Notes: A lot of you have been asking if Hinata is ever going to read Sasuke's books, and the reason why I haven't answered that question is because of this chapter! I know she didn't actually read a book of his, but this is a good start, right? Anyway, Sasuke's working around to get as much of Hinata's time as possible! Even though neither of them are quite sure what, exactly, their relationship is. But that's okay - we do! And they'll figure it out, because it's not always just about the ending - it's about the journey, too, and those are usually some of my favorite stories. I really hope you all enjoyed this chapter, thank you so much for reading, and I hope to see you all again for next week's update (and SasuHina's date)!